VB wrote:
Is there a way to change the origin point of a radial gradient? InDesign always makes it originate from the center of the object, but I’d like to be able to have it originate from, say, a third of the way down from the top of an object. The “location” option in the gradient panel is grayed out when you have radial gradient selected.
It took me months to figure out InDesign’s gradient features when I started using this program. There are all kinds of weird workarounds and things to keep in mind. For example, it seems like you should be able to control this kind of thing in the Gradient panel, but you really can’t. Instead, you need to use the Gradient tool.
The Gradient tool is all about applying manual “blend” formatting on top of the gradient, such as where a gradient should start and stop. For example, here’s a radial blend and the Gradient panel:
As you noted, the Gradient panel’s Location field is grayed out. But when you drag over the object with the Gradient tool, you can move the “start” and “end” point of the vignette:
The Gradient tool is helpful in many other situations, including controling how a blend fills (or strokes) selected text. For example, when you fill text with a blend from the Swatches panel, it’s always based on the bounding box of the text frame. You can override that by selecting the text and running the Gradient tool over it. Here’s the original text (with a radial blend swatch on it) and then after the gradient tool was used:
I wish you could save this kind of location information in an object style, but you can’t. Ah, Adobe always has to leave something for a future version.
This article was last modified on March 12, 2021
This article was first published on August 9, 2008
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